Editorial

This issue contains a selection of the best papers from the 2007 European Conference on e‑Government which took place in The Hague . Our host was Den Haagse Hogeschool, which is housed in a building which can best be described as a series of large ellipses piled on top of one another. Finding a given room on a given level involved a decision as to whether to go clockwise or anticlockwise round this structure and there was plenty of empirical evidence of the validity of the *buttered toast law as the later one was for a presentation, the more likely one seemed to be to go the longer way around.

As usual with this issue, there are a large number of articles and they come from many countries. A number of contributors consider various aspects of government portals and on‑line services. Aykut Arslan looks at the impact of ICT on local government in Turkey , concluding that although progress has been made, there is much to be done, especially in moving beyond efficiency to broader goals of inclusion and democracy. On the other side of the continent, Karin Furuli and Sigrun Kongsrud compare and contrast government portals in Demark and Norway . The framework that they develop for doing this may be of interest to other researchers and has wide potential application. In their article, Ralph Feenstra, Marijn Janssen and René Wagenaar (who sadly died in 2007), examine the question of composition methods for web based government services where there are multiple actors. Composition is the process of combining several services (usually from different suppliers) necessary for the completion of a single task and evaluating methods of doing this is non trivial. Regina Connolly's article focuses on the factors that influence the take up and effectiveness of Ireland 's Revenue Online Service tax payment system and provides several useful insights that could be applied elsewhere. Alea Fairchild and Bruno de Vuyst consider another aspect of government service, the Belgian Government Interoperability Framework (BELGIF) and look at the problems of interoperability in a country with its own particular administrative and political complexities.

Document management is a topic that to date has received little attention in the e‑government literature. Two papers here contribute to making up for this deficiency. For anybody who would like a primer as well as an interesting model, the article by Raphael Kunis, Gudula Rünger and Michael Schwind is an informative read. Mitja Decman also considers the matter of government documents, this time from the perspective of archiving and long term storage. As well as being another good overview of the issues involved, the case for having confidence in such forms of storage is well argued.

The conference has always attracted a number of contributions on electronic voting and e‑democracy In their article, Orhan and Deniz Cetinkaya give a sweeping overview of e‑voting, arguing that there is sometimes a lack of clarity in terminology and suggesting that appropriate levels of verification and validation should be applied to e‑voting in different situations. Mark Liptrott's article on e‑voting presents a rather different perspective, examining the successes and failures of the 2003 e‑voting experiment in the UK . His conclusion is that government will need to be proactive and learn the lessons of Roger's diffusion theory if it is going to get widespread public acceptance of this technology. In a different part of the e‑democracy forest, Jenny Backhouse arrives as a somewhat similar conclusion, that engagement with e‑democracy in Australia seeks unlikely to break out spontaneously with given models. Using analogies from e‑business, she concludes, however, that e‑democracy is here to stay whether we like it or not!

Finally, two papers with broader themes. Albert Meijer opens his article with the provocative question; “Are all countries heading for similar political systems in the information age?” He then looks at this question using empirical research in the USA and The Netherlands which suggests that convergence is not happening in quite the way some expect. Mary Griffiths looks at something quite different, the South Australian Oxygen programme (designed to connect the X and Y generations) which seeks to equip young people for civil engagement via electronic media. The results of this experiment are refreshingly positive and again, as in other articles in this issue, there are lessons for a wider world.

Abstract

This article is based on a longitudinal exploratory study of the Turkish local e‑governments between September 2005 and December 2006. 3,228 Turkish local governments constitute the sampling framework of this paper. The first part of the study, which took place in 2005, indicated that only 969 authorities were online. But the second part, issued at the end of 2006, showed that 1,591 units were online. The purpose of the second study was to explore the degree of change and how this change occurs in a certain time line among those authorities. Despite some theoretical studies in this field, no research was held on local e‑governments, particularly, in a longitudinal dimension in Turkey. That's why this study is unique in terms of covering the overall picture of the local activity on the topic of e‑government.

Abstract

This paper examines the current status of e‑democracy initiatives in Australia and considers the factors that might contribute to the evolution of a successful model of e‑democracy in the Australian context. In particular, it examines whether any analogies can be drawn from the world of e‑business which has transitioned from an over‑hyped boom and then bust in the early years into a steadier and sustained growth in more recent times. The paper concludes that, despite some valiant efforts by e‑democracy enthusiasts, we have yet to hit on an e‑ democracy model that truly engages the Australian populace. Nevertheless, the analogy from e‑business suggests that, given the right model(s) and the right environment, it can still be possible to deliver real benefits via e‑democracy.

Abstract

Electronic democracy (e‑democracy) is a necessity in this era of computers and information technology. Electronic election (e‑election) is one of the most important applications of e‑democracy, because of the importance of the voters' privacy and the possibility of frauds. Electronic voting (e‑voting) is the most significant part of e‑election, which refers to the use of computers or computerised voting equipment to cast ballots in an election. Due to the rapid growth of computer technologies and advances in cryptographic techniques, e‑voting is now an applicable alternative for many non‑governmental elections. However, security demands become higher when voting takes place in the political arena. Requirement analysis is an important part of the system design process and it is impossible to develop the right system in the right way without a correct and complete set of requirements. In this manner all e‑voting studies mention e‑voting requirements somewhere, and different sets of requirements are defined. Almost all researchers state verifiability as an e‑voting requirement by narrowing the definition of verification. Unfortunately the definitions for verifiability are inadequate and unclear and it is categorised as individual verifiability and universal verifiability, where they are generally misused in the literature. Nowadays the researchers have started to discuss deeply the verification in e‑voting. However there is no obvious consensus about the definitions. Moreover, validation has not been discussed properly yet. This paper focuses on the importance of the verification and validation (V&V) in e‑voting and gives proper definitions for verifiability and validity. Then it describes some V&V activities and explains the relationship between V&V and core requirements that any e‑voting system should satisfy. This paper also states some problems for designing and developing secure e‑voting systems.

Abstract

This paper describes an ongoing study into the quality of service provided by the Irish Revenue Commisioners' on‑line tax filing and collection system. The Irish Revenue On‑Line Service (ROS) site has won several awards. In this study, a version of the widely used SERVQUAL measuring instrument, adapted for use with on‑line services, has been modified for the specific case of ROS. The theory behind this instrument is set out, the particular problems of evaluating revenue collecting on‑line are examined and the rationale for this approach is explained.

Abstract

Governments all over the world are confronted with a new sphere of electronic data that is the consequence of increasingly presented and used information technology (IT). The data is heaping up on desktop computers, servers, tapes, CDs, etc. Not till the last decade did leading employees and the political elite start to ask themselves how will this data be saved as a proof of e‑government actions for the near and far future and our posterity. Considering the nature of electronic form compared to the paper form we can define keeping electronic data as a "non‑stop" job, while keeping the classical paper form can be defined as a "store‑and‑leave" job. New legislation and standards regarding the management and archiving of electronic data arise and so do practical solutions â€” information systems. At the point of implementation we can be confronted with huge expenses and the question of best implementation. How to solve this issue, considering outsourcing the service of long term digital archiving by external contractors or implementing it by the government itself is the topic of this paper. The paper focuses on organizational, technical and financial aspects of the dilemmas "to outsource or not", "parts or the whole service", how to do it, etc. It analyses the decision factors and tries to make conclusions on the basis of theory and research results from different survey projects. It presents the results of the empirical study of the digital archiving filed in the public sector of Slovenia that also focused on the outsourcing of digital archiving service or different segments of this service. The results from the public sector are also compared with the results for the private sector.

Abstract

The Belgian federal government's June 2004 decision to promote the use of open standards has been reinforced by the launch of BELGIF [BELgian Government Interoperability Framework], launched by the ICEG working group of the Belgian government in May 2005, and the 2006 decision to mandate ODF as the standard office document exchange format by September 2008. This paper discusses the issues surrounding the BELGIF implementation and ODF mandate and the challenges still to overcome, given that interoperability defines how technical systems, people and organisations work together, in a country with three languages and five layers of government.

Abstract

New systems can be designed by composing them out‑of‑existing software components which are accessible as web services and provided by the service providers. Governmental organizations can act as service providers by providing information or functionality like authenticating. The basic premise is that by reusing components, development and maintenance costs can be lowered and flexibility is created. As such, public agencies are looking for support to create new compositions. Several composition approaches can be found in the literature, however none of these evaluations take into account the e‑government specific requirements originating from the involvement of multiple parties having different interests. In this paper we present a composition evaluation approach which extends the existing evaluation approaches by including the multi‑actor dimension. We illustrate this method using an example. Further research is aimed at executing the proposed approach and comparing semantic and multi‑actor‑based compositions methods.

Abstract

This case study investigates the development of national portals offering online public services to citizens. Norway and Denmark are leading the way in developing online public services for citizens. In this study the development of the citizen portals Borger.dk in Denmark and Mypage in Norway will be examined. At present, documented research on national citizen portals is limited. Comparing the similarities and differences of citizen portals is an important part of e‑ government development. We have used a framework for comparing the portals. The research questions to be answered in this case study are; Why are citizen portals created? How does one deal with matters of security? How is portal development organized? This study is also intended to bring to light factors that have led to the differences in the development of Borger.dk and Mypage. The study is based on published and unpublished reports from the two countries in question, together with interviews with key persons. Of additional interest, in conducting this study, is the opportunity to gain greater insight into the development of online services provided by the public sector. This case study also raises further questions relating to e‑government to be used in future research.

Abstract

How well are government intranets modelling the participatory protocols needed to develop the skills for effective government‑citizen engagement? Does the inclusion of social media forms and user‑generated content (chat, collaboration work, content sharing) add or detract value from the interactive online space at work? This paper presents work on a small Australian case study drawn from a comparative study of e‑participation projects within government in Australia and New Zealand. This paper focuses on the development of, and everyday practices in, a password‑only, subscription‑based intranet Oxygen, which has been operating since December 2006 in the South Australian public service. Specially developed through funding gained in an internally‑competitive round, Oxygen is designed by, and for, a specific demographic of young media‑savvy professionals. The research includes initial interviews with managers, intranet peer‑managers, online observation of the 'virtual village' conducted at periods throughout 2007, data collected from Oxygen's external site‑builders, and an analysis of logins and page hits. A user‑questionnaire was emailed to selfselecting Oxygen subscribers. In its use of dedicated pages and protocols for social networking, the government intranet demonstrates that, in targeted demographics, the peer‑management of online space can further develop existing professional behaviours, and encourage new collaborative ones which have the potential to be transformative of peer and manager attitudes to leadership, cooperation and the reinvention of organisational behaviour within the service. The research also assesses the popular features of the intranet's design, and the most successful peer‑practices, in order to gauge their potential transferability to e‑participation protocols and projects in interactive citizen‑government domains.

Abstract

Document management plays a decisive role in modern e‑government applications. As today's authorities have to face the challenge of increasing the efficiency and quality while decreasing the duration of their government processes, a flexible, adaptable document management system is needed for large e‑government applications. In this paper, we introduce a new approach for a document management model that helps to face this challenge. The model is based on two new document management concepts that extend common document management facilities: hierarchical process folders and security levels. A hierarchical process folder mainly consists of files that belong to a government process and includes all documents processed during process execution. The folder grows during execution and contains all versions of changed, existing, and added documents. The process folders can be used in a single authority software system as well as in distributed e‑government software systems. More precisely, this means that the model of hierarchical process folders can be deployed to exchange process folders in whole or in part between authorities to support the execution of distributed hierarchical government processes. We give an example how the application to single authorities and distributed systems is possible by describing the implementation within our distributed e‑ government software system. The application of security levels to documents allows the encryption of documents based on security relevant properties, e. g. user privileges for intra authority security and network classification for inter authority communication. The benefits of our model are at first a centralised data management for all documents of a single or a hierarchical government process. Secondly, a traceable history of all data within government processes, which is very important for the archival storage of the electronic government processes, is provided. Thirdly, the security levels allow a secure intra authority document accessing system and inter authority document communication system.

Abstract

This paper outlines the preliminary findings of the empirical stage of the research to establish the reasons that in 2003 some English local authorities decided to trial e‑voting and others did not. The key findings demonstrate that central and local governments have different agendas and there is little momentum from central government to increase the number of pilot schemes. The central government policy to introduce e‑voting via voluntary pilot schemes is only providing a limited insight into the problems surrounding the operation of the new voting methods. The findings are derived from comparative semi‑structured interviews with Election Officers from pilot and non‑pilot authorities, and the analysis is based upon Rogers' diffusion of innovations theory framework. The findings illustrate that in the case of e‑voting, central government has not adopted a formal diffusion strategy and that a most influential driver to adopt e‑voting is not prominently acknowledged in diffusion theory. The results suggest that the theory of perceived attributes needs modification and the issue of the diffusion of a public policy should be considered by government earlier in the public policy process.

Abstract

Does the use of ICTs lead to convergence? Or are existing differences being reproduced? This paper deals with these broad questions in the domain of political accountability in two countries and applies these questions to the level of agency accountability and political accountability systems. The results of empirical research in the Netherlands (a parliamentary system) and three American states (presidential systems) into the effects of digitization on political accountability are used to evaluate the relevance of institutional differences for explaining outcomes of technological trajectories. The research indicates that there are many similarities and few differences at the level of agencies. Government agencies in both countries record more data than before the introduction of ICTs, grant better access to recently recorded data. have not created technological warranties for protecting the authenticity of this information and cannot guarantee that the digital information will remain accessible over time. One minor difference between the findings is that websites were found to be more important for communication between government agencies and citizens and even within government agencies in the USA than in the Netherlands. The fact that many similarities and few differences were found supports the idea that government agencies in different countries are converging because of the use of the same technologies. Does convergence also take place at the level of accountability systems? There are relevant differences at the level of political principals. Principals in the Netherlands make little use of digital information and mostly rely on information in paper documents whereas principals in the USA extensively use digital information for fact‑finding. Principals in the Netherlands have insufficient information processing capacity to adequately process all the digital information available to them while principals in the USA generally have sufficient capacity. Principals in the Netherlands make limited us of databases for fact‑finding whereas principals in the USA, in contrast, make much use of this digital information. Overall, American principals are better capable of using digital information for fact‑finding than Dutch principals. This indicates that institutional differences in ex‑post oversight are reproduced in the information age. The relation between information and communication technologies and political institutions is ambiguous: agencies are converging whereas differences between political principals are reproduced.